Monday, June 3, 2013

Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell

Title: PostmortemAuthor: Patricia CornwellPublished: Time Warner, 2006 (first published 1990)Pages: 404Series: Book 1, Kay ScarpettaSummary: A serial killer is on the loose in Richmond, Virginia. Three women have died, brutalised and strangled in their own bedrooms. There is no pattern: the killer appears to strike at random—but always early on Saturday mornings.So when Dr Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Officer, awakened at 2.33 a.m. she knows the news is bad: there is a fourth victim. And she fears many others will follow unless she can dig up new forensic evidence to aid the police.But not everyone is pleased to see a woman in this powerful job. Someone may even want to ruin her career and reputation... (Taken from Goodreads)

Thoughts: I’ve always been quite
interested in forensic science and used to want to study that when I grew up, I
still kind of do to be honest. I
remember hearing about how Patricia Cornwell was a great writer of forensic thrillers
in the 90’s so when I saw this book cheap I snapped it up to give it a go.

I’m really glad that I did too
because I thoroughly enjoyed reading every page. The mystery is a strong element and the
science that comes along with it just adds another layer that I absolutely
loved.

A lot of people complain about
how dated the book and the technology is but keeping in mind that Postmortem
was written in 1990 I thought it was quite enjoyable. Some of the technology was really interesting
to read about and I found it to be really intriguing. I actually found that I could keep up quite
well with what was happening in the lab and it was great.

The characters weren’t really
people I felt I could connect with or even like for a while. I think it was only around the last couple of
chapters that I ended up liking Kay Scarpetta and Marino. They both have this professional relationship
that while they don’t always see eye to eye, actually works and provides a
really satisfying result.

I feel like Postmortem was a
really great book and it had a good amount of mystery, action and science to
keep me interested throughout the book.
I’ll definitely be starting the next book in the series straight away.

I’d definitely recommend this
one to fans of forensic/medical thrillers and I think that as long as you keep
in mind that this book was written in 1990 so it isn’t going to have insanely
wonderful technology I don’t see why you can’t enjoy this one.